With their world-conquering success, it's amazing that the Goosebumpbs series of teen horrors has not been filmed before (not counting TV). That's about to change though, with the news that Disturbia writer Carl Ellsworth is at work on a Goosebumps movie.

A 1990s publishing phenomenon that's still going strong, Goosebumps is an enormous series of kids' horror novels by RL Stine (who, unusually for these things, is a real author and not a pseudonym for a franchise collective). Stine was America's best-selling author for three consecutive years, and was named best-selling kids author of all time in 2003 by the Guinness Book of Records. He's since been surpassed by JK Rowling, who wrote a piffling seven Harry Potters to Stine's 75 Goosebumps. Amazingly, there are even more entries in his Fear Street series, suggesting that he writes a book in the time it takes most of us to write our names.

The Goosebumps movie won't be based on any of the original stories, however, with Ellsworth working on an original screenplay. As well as Disturbia, he wrote the upcoming, MGM-delayed Red Dawn remake, so would seem to know his way around a teen-thriller. He's done "proper" horror too, with 2009's Last House on the Left.

Columbia have had the Goosebumps rights since 2008, with 1408's writers Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander working on a previous attempt. Neil Moritz, almost as prolific in film as Stine is in children's books, is producing what he hopes will be the start of a family franchise.